Mandated Reporting in OH

February 4, 2010 5:50 PM

How do I find out if anyone made a mandated report to Children's Services about me?

I grew up in OH in the 1980's and suspect that at least one mandated report may have been made about the abuse I was suffering. How can I found out about such reports?

posted by anonymous to Law & Government (5 answers total)

I'm not a lawyer or an FoI specialist, but you are likely to want to talk to one.

It looks like Ohio has Open Records laws. If you can find out which agency would have received child protection reports about you, you may be able to lodge a request to see that information.

I have some contact with the statutory child protection agencies where I live, and these kinds of requests are common, especially for wards of the State or children who were removed into foster care. You may find, however, that information that identifies or might identify anyone who made confidential reports is exempt.

Memail me if you'd like.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:06 PM on February 4, 2010

And there's a list of the current Ohio agencies including childrens services agencies here (PDF).
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:43 PM on February 4, 2010

The above advice is sound, but you may also consider simply calling the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Protective Services has a list of customer services numbers here.

You generally have a right to access records about yourself, so it may not be necessary to submit a formal FOIA request. I'd definitely try that route before paying anyone.
posted by valkyryn at 5:40 AM on February 5, 2010

You would know if a report was ever "accepted," as you would have met with a CPS investigator as a child. The bar for accepting a report is fairly low and it really seems that most calls are investigated, especially calls from mandated reporters. That, at least, has been my experience in Central New York over the last five+ years. The 80s in Ohio may very well be a different ballgame.

I don't know what the record keeping procedure would be for reports that are not investigated. I would start by just calling the Protective Services office for the counties that you lived in. Chances are, the first person answering the phone will be able to tell you if records are kept on non investigated reports. I also agree that any identifying information about the caller will be removed.
posted by wg at 8:54 AM on February 5, 2010

In my state, Oregon, reports from the 80s would have been destroyed by now. Our computer would probably show that a report would have been made, might indicate the broad area of concern, and would also probably show the disposition (whether it was closed with no field assessment, or founded, or unfounded), might show the perpetrator's relationship to you (father, uncle, etc) and that would be it. The only time we would still have those records would be if the case had been open on and off for all that time, and you would definitely know if that was true.

And obviously you would only know if a report was assigned for assessment if you would have been old enough to remember a worker coming out.

I supervise child protective services and get calls like this all the time. Generally, we'll have folks come in and fill out a form and show us their driver's licenses and then look at the records and make a determination about whether we can release them or not. Anything we find that can be released would have all information about who the reporter was redacted.
posted by purenitrous at 9:56 AM on February 5, 2010